The Makhuwa language, Emakhuwa (also spelled Makua and Macua) is the primary Bantu language of northern Mozambique. It is spoken by 4 million Makua people, who live north of the Zambezi River, particularly in the province of Nampula. It is the most populous indigenous language of Mozambique. The province of Nampula has practically no other ethnic group.[7] Apart from the languages which belong to the same group, eMakhuwa is distinguished from other Bantu languages by the loss of consonant + vowel prefixes in favour of e- - compare epula, "rain", with Tswanapula.

Vowels used are i, e, a, o, u, which is unusually sparse for a Bantu language: long and short varieties need to be distinguished:

omala - to finish

omaala - to paste, stick

omela - to sprout, bud

omeela - to share out

The consonants are more complex: postalveolar tt and tth exist, both p and ph are used, and both x (English "sh") and h, while x varies with s. Regionally there is also θ (the "th" of English "thorn" or the Welsh "th"), ð (the "th" of English "seethe" and "dd" of Welsh "eisteddfod"), z and ng. In eLomwe, for instance, the -tt- of eMakhuwa is represented by a "ch" as in English "church".[7]

Mutual intelligibility between these is limited. Central Makhuwa ("Makhuwa-Makhuwana") is the basis of the standard language. Ethnologue lists Central Makhuwa, Meetto–Ruvuma, Marrevone–Enahara, and Esaka as separate languages, and Chirima as six languages.

The population figures are from Ethnologue for 2006. They tally 3.1 million speakers of Central Makhuwa and 3.5 million of the other varieties, though the Ethnologue article for Central Makhuwa covers Marrevone and Enahara, so these might be double counted.